


Hide from the light

by starseverywhere



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 1x23, Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-15
Updated: 2011-05-15
Packaged: 2017-10-19 11:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starseverywhere/pseuds/starseverywhere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course Danny still loves Rachel, but...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide from the light

**Author's Note:**

> Post-ep rambling on 1x23. Totally un-betaed and posting now before it gets Jossed.

Of course Danny still loves Rachel; He moved across the country to be near Grace, but Rachel has something to do with it too, he just doesn’t let people go that easily. Even ones he can't stand to be in the same room as.  
Their split wasn’t his fault totally, it was a pretty joint effort, but he knows he was the precipitating factor. She couldn’t deal with the stress of his job and maybe he didn’t do enough to keep her included. He knows she was wrong when she said he didn’t love them both enough to quit, he loved them that much so he had to keep on going to get the bad guys and keep them safe. Maybe a bit of it was how different they were, she’s a nice smart girl from just outside London, he’s a wiseass from Jersey. And really, he doesn't’ think anyone would be surprised to find they’re both hideously stubborn. So once they were separated and the divorce started it just got more and more acrimonious until neither could talk without snarling and glaring and being generally unpleasant.

But then, here’s the thing. They’ve been talking more. It started with conversations about Grace that weren’t entirely unbearable and slowly what they’d been doing over their days starts seeping in. Danny rambled about the continuing mysteries of his SEAL and how he’s starting to really appreciate Ohana, and Rachel just chatted about her work, and the new initiatives and how thankful Danny should be that she’s the one that has to deal with Mrs Chau, the mother of Grace’s current best friend and wow is it a miracle that the child isn’t an utter horror. When Danny realises that they’ve spent an entire conversation without mentioning Grace or bickering he’s stunned into silence for a moment.  
‘This is nice’ he says, smiling at his end of the phone and he can almost feel Rachel’s tentative smile in return.  
‘It is’, she replies, ‘I’ve missed this.’  
Danny blurts out ‘I miss you,’ before he can stop himself but doesn’t entirely regret saying it.  
Rachel just huffs softly on the other end of the line, ‘oh Daniel...’

They start finding excuses to chat, and then realise they don’t need excuses, it’s just a conversation but that moves on to coffee. Danny stops talking about Steve as much and Rachel never so much as mentions Stan. And neither think too deeply really about what that means. That’s all it is, two people, theoretically co-parenting but really starting to rebuild the pieces of what they violently and mutually knocked down. There’s not really a hint or a suggestion it’s more than platonic, no looks or touches and Danny can hand on heart say that while yes, Rachel’s legs do look magnificent in that skirt and the heels do frankly illegal things to her ass, he hasn’t been afraid to admit that even when they were standing in court wishing a meteor would come down and obliterate the other so why he should stop finding her hot now is beyond him.

For all they’ve been talking, and for all that Danny is one hell of a good detective, thank you very much, when Rachel says she was looking for an excuse to come home, that she and Stan might not make it, it’s like a bolt from the blue. And much like random lightening strikes, it sends his world into disarray.

There’s a problem, ok, there are several problems but Danny’s just going to focus on a couple of the more enormous ones for now and leave the little niggly ones alone and hope they go away. Firstly, Danny doesn’t cheat. Never has, never will and his mother raised him much better than that. Even if Rachel was his before Stan and it’s no secret how much he thinks of him. Rachel is married and conversations over warm beverages are as far as he’s going to take it until everything is signed and sealed and delivered. He’s operating a strict, if slightly gleeful look but don’t touch policy. Then there’s the ever so small fact that they divorced once already, messily, really, really messily in fact and if he ever has to hear his baby girl ask why he made Mommy cry or was it because she was bad ever again then he’ll take himself out back and beat himself up.

Then there’s Steve. There’s the deep down joyous feeling he gets sometimes when everything goes right and their eyes meet and Steve grins, that wide open hiding nothing smile. There’s the hugs that last too long and are too close for typically platonic heterosexual behaviour that Danny wouldn’t give up for the world. So yes, he’s a little conflicted.

On one hand he has his gorgeous and smart and mother-of-his-child ex-wife, someone who might be splitting from her current husband and with whom reconciliation might be possible once a decent period has elapsed. Also someone who he hated with the fire of a thousand suns for a not inconsiderable period a very short while ago.

The other hand has a man who he trust with his life and who he has a connection with that he can’t really explain to himself. The thought of stopping all the edging around the elephant in the room and seeing what happens if some mutual nudity is involved takes his breath away, and in a much better way than earlier that day.

Danny sighs deeply and within seconds Steve is there, hand on the back of his neck.

‘Danny, you ok?’ he asks, concern written in bold across his features, with terror inching in at the edges. And really, that’s all it takes.

Danny smiles up at him, ‘No, not quite perfect just yet, but I will be. Take me home?’


End file.
